Tag Archives: cookie recipes

Simple, flavorful, and dunkable, biscotti are some of my favorite cookies. You can make them using a variety of flavors (I love cranberry and pistachio!), and they’re even better after you dunk them in a cup of coffee or tea.

I usually make biscotti around Christmastime, but lately I’ve had a deep craving for it…probably because of all the Great British Baking Show episodes I’ve been marathoning recently.

Biscotti means “twice baked” in Italian…and these cookies are indeed baked twice. They may seem daunting, but they’re actually really easy to make and are great to give as gifts! Combine your favorite flavors and have fun baking these tasty afternoon treats!

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I love baking cookies for the holidays, but one of the most stressful elements of holiday baking is buying all the ingredients. Frankly I don’t have room to store 5 bags of flour, 4 bags of sugar, and 10 sticks of butter…however, there are some tasty cookies you can make using only a handful of ingredients!

Not only are these great for holiday baking, but 5-ingredient or less cookies are also great for clearing out your baking cabinet to make room for new ingredients. Some of these are even no-bake recipes, so you can make several batches without overworking your oven.

Easy to give as gifts and make for family and friends, these quick and easy cookies will help you hack your holiday baking!

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It’s inevitable…whether it’s your co-worker, friend, or crazy aunt, someone is bound to send an email sometime between now and December 19th with the following subject line:

LET’S DO A COOKIE EXCHANGE!

While there are some folks who will jump at this opportunity (me!), there are others who just don’t have the time, patience, money, or skills to bake an insane amount of cookies around the holiday season…but that doesn’t mean you should skip out on the fun!

Let the grocery store do the work for you! With these five no-fail, insanely easy cookie decorating ideas, you can still have fun decorating and gifting cookies without all the stress that comes with baking! Simply buy your favorite cookies as your base and add your own special touches at home.

Whether it’s Nilla Wafers, Oreos, Nutter Butters, or just regular old sugar cookies, these no-bake cookie decorating ideas are just the ticket to a batch of cookies you’ll be proud to share with family and friends. They’re simple, affordable, and most of all, fun!

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OK, guys…Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is JUST around the corner. While everyone else is on the hunt for antacids and stretchy pants, I’m raiding the baking section of my local grocery store to plan for my holiday cookie platters!

Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition I picked up from my dad. He used to bake cookies for family and friends every year, and since he’s now passed, I’ve taken on the duty of turning my own little kitchen into a butter and sugar paradise.

I always make his favorite cookies: gingerbread snaps, peppermint canes, butter cookies, almond cookies, and cranberry bread…but every year I try to make a few new cookies to help switch things up. This year I have a lot of new recipes I want to try, and it can definitely be daunting to figure out exactly how much of everything is needed so you can buy all your supplies in one shopping trip!

However, I’ve found a way to make this insanely easy and stress-free. The answer? EXCEL. Excel is seriously a life-saver. If you don’t have Excel, you can also use Google Sheets…it’s free and works exactly the same. PLUS, you can access your Google Sheets from any device that can connect to the Internet, which is super helpful in a pinch.

For my purposes, I’m using Google Sheets this year, as my home computer doesn’t have Excel. And I’m gonna take you on a step-by-step tutorial on how to use any spreadsheet program to make your holiday food shopping so much easier! While I use this for cookies, you can also use this for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any occasion when you have to bake or cook several recipes at once.

First things first—gather all your recipes. Open up Google Sheets or Excel and, in the first row, type “Ingredients” in the first column, “Amounts” in the second column, and “Recipe” in the third column. Then you’re just going to import all your data, putting the ingredient in column 1, how much of that ingredient is needed in column 2, and what recipe that measurement belongs to in column 3…so your chart should look a little something like this:

Keep going until all your ingredients for all your recipes are listed. It will also help you in the long run if you list ingredients the same throughout the sheet. For example, list “flour” and “all-purpose flour” just as flour. That will make this much easier to sort in the next step!

Also you can freeze row 1 so it remains at the top of the sheet as you scroll down through your data. To do that, just highlight the first row, then go to View—Freeze—Row 1 and the top row will remain at the top as you scroll down your list.

Once everything is added, create a new tab and copy and paste all the info from the first tab into the second. Highlight everything but the top row:

Then do a right-click, select “Sort Range” and sort by Column A, AàZ:

Now all your like ingredients are grouped together. As you can see, I have Heavy Cream, Salt, Sugar, and Butter listed several times:

Now comes the fun part! Next we’re going to combine all the double-listed ingredients. So for butter, I’d combine all the measurements (1 cup, 1 cup, ½ cup) and type “2½ cups” in the “Amounts” column, then delete the two rows I don’t need:

So this:

Becomes this:

Go ahead and do that with all instances of doubles.

Finally, I like to add one further step of organization and just put like ingredients together so I’m not running all over the grocery store. For that, I turn the “Recipe” column into an “Area” column and type in the section of the grocery store where I would find said item:

That way I can walk through the grocery store once, get everything I need, and head out.

This method has been pretty foolproof for me since I started using it about two years ago. It makes it so much easier when I don’t have to guess how much stuff I need and I know I’m getting just enough ingredients to make everything I want to make.

If you plan on baking a lot like I do, you might have an instance where, after you tally your totals, you end up needing something like “40 cups of flour” or “15 cups of sugar”. For instances like that, keep in mind that one bag of flour can contain anywhere from 15 to 20 cups of flour, depending on the type of flour, the brand and whether or not it’s sifted. There’s really no great conversion for how many bags of flour you’ll need, but a 5 lb. bag should give you a good 15 cups at least. For sugar, the average is about 2¼ cups to 1 pound…so a 4 lb. bag should contain about 9 cups.

Knowledge is power! Learn fun facts, hints and tips, and creative ways to use every day items with “The Buzz” posts on Thursday.

Sure, chocolate chip cookies are okay. And snickerdoodles will do in a pinch. I could take or leave gingerbread cookies, but White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies…that’s where it’s at, people.

Though I have been a die-hard fan of these cookies my entire life, I never actually tried making them myself until a few days ago. WOW. Fresh out of the oven, warm and gooey and oh so buttery, these cookies are 100 times better hot off the pan.

For best results, be careful not to over bake these. They only need to be in the oven about 10 minutes, just until the edges start to brown. When you take them out, they will look puffy and raw, but let them sit for a while and cool slightly before you judge. A few minutes out of the oven and these will turn into soft, cakey mounds of happiness.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter, softened (1½ sticks)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup white chocolate chips

¾ cup chopped macadamia nuts

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture in small batches. Mix until all the flour is incorporated into the dough.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are just slightly browned.
NOTE: The cookies will look very soft and puffy and you’ll want to keep them in longer, but RESIST THE URGE! Take them out as soon as you see the edges browning.

Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to wire cooling grid and cool completely.

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips.

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Attention coconut lovers! Tomorrow is National Macaroon Day, a perfect time to indulge in these delicious soft and sweet cookies. While I will never say no to a plain jane coconut macaroon, I do love experimenting with flavors and trying new and strange combinations, which has led me to create this delicious Blackberry and White Chocolate Coconut Macaroon.

Now, I know these look like something out of Wonka’s factory, but they’re actually pretty good. Very tangy and sweet and these would be super cute for a tea party or themed birthday party.

I’m also the proud owner of Wilton’s Treatolgy Flavor System, a collection of eight amazing concentrated flavors that have inspired me to come up with all kinds of recipes. This kit includes Crisp Champagne, Sweet Meyer Lemon, Fresh Basil, Warm Cinnamon Graham, Juicy Peach, Salted Caramel, Creamy Vanilla Custard, and Toasted Coconut. I used the Sweet Meyer Lemon concentrate with these cookies, as blackberries and lemon are a winning combination, but you could also use lemon extract if you’d like.

If you want to try your own berry combinations, substitute blackberries for raspberries and add almond extract instead of lemon. You could also try strawberries and the Fresh Basil concentrate from Treatology! Hmm…I think I have some new experiments to try…

In food processor, process coconut for 1 minute. Add sugar and process for another minute. Add extract, salt, and egg whites and process until blended.

Add blackberries and pulse until berries are broken down. This might take a while. You may have to stop and push the berries down to the bottom to make sure they’re incorporated. I might even suggest pulsing them separately just to start the process of breaking them down before you add them to the coconut.

At our Super Bowl party last night, we had a huge summer-style feast. Chips and guacamole, salsa, a taco bar, and cold Mexican style beer. And what goes better with a satisfying summer meal than lemon squares?

These delicious Luscious Lemon Squares are practically fool proof. It was my first time making them and they’re so simple and delicious. I garnished mine with raspberries and blackberries and then sprinkled some sliced almonds on top. This is an easy and fun dessert to bring to a party, a book club meeting, or just to make for your friends and family when you’re feeling like a little summer sunshine.

Luscious Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, cold

4 slightly beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (one lemon should do the trick)

3/4 cup lemon juice (approx. 3 lemons)

1/4 cup half and half

Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine the 2 cups flour, the 1/2 cup powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture into the bottom of a greased 13x9x2 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or until edges are golden.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, or until center is set. Cool on a wire rack. Sift powdered sugar over top (make sure they’re completely cool or else the sugar will melt). Cut into bars and cover and store in the refrigerator.

Every Monday is a “Reci-bee” post, where I share my favorite recipes, recipe collections, and cooking and baking hints and tips.